Whither Thou Goest: Downtown Sightseeing

It is an unusual thing for our family to be able to take some time to just walk around downtown in the city of Krasnoyarsk. When we lived closer to the city, I would often enjoy a trip downtown to the different stores and cafes with friends. Now there are many more shopping centers located in other areas which include the stores you can find in the "center" so I tend to stay away from the downtown area. We are usually only passing through making one or two stops only if we have to since the amount of traffic and lack of parking makes a trip through the city very difficult.
One day in June Rebekah and I had planned a "girl's day out" outing for the two of us. The day ended up coinciding with David needing to teach an English lesson in the city. He had already agreed to take us into town in our car to help us not have to make the two hour bus trip. So, in order for Beka and myself to get to the hair salon on time, the kids and I decided we would just walk around while David was in class. David's English lesson was held right across the street from the Opera and Ballet Theater. The city of Krasnoyarsk has numerous fountains all around the downtown area. The Opera and Ballet Theater also has a large park in front of it with many fountains. They recently rebuilt some of them making them able to shoot water from one pool to the next along with fountains that "dance" and light up while choreographed to music. In the evening there is supposed to be a laser/video show as well. Since you are probably wondering how all these fountains work with our cold temperatures, I will tell you that they don't! They have crews who come out and remove all the pumps and special equipment so they are not damaged by the cold. In the winter these fountains have lights in them which makes them so pretty at night! (Maybe I will post some pictures of that in another post!)
Below are more of our photos from our walk in the park. And don't worry, even though we took the time to chase pigeons and sit by the fountains in the morning, Rebekah and I enjoyed a nice time at the hair salon, lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, and a little shopping!